


silly things

by mustlovelance



Series: love me like you do [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Feelings, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 00:17:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12876129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mustlovelance/pseuds/mustlovelance
Summary: Allura may be a princess, but she likes a lot of silly things. One of those silly things is this ancient video game. The other, apparently, is the sound of Lance's voice.





	silly things

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second part of my Allurance series, but it stands on its own. I messed with some of the details from the video game, but it was more fun this way, so just go with it. 
> 
> Enjoy the fluff!

_“QUIZNAK!”_

Allura stopped short, turning her head towards the source of the noise. She recognized the voice as Lance’s. Even if she hadn’t, she only knew of one person who used Altean slang in such a way.  

Curiosity seized her as she approached the door to his room. If Lance were in genuine distress, he would have made more noise than that. It was likely something silly that didn’t warrant her attention. And yet… 

She pressed her ear to the door. Between the music and the clicking sound, Allura didn’t need to guess what Lance was up to. It would explain why he hadn’t bothered locking his room. She pressed the button to slide the door open, revealing the room behind it.  

Like before, Lance was sitting on the floor with a controller in his hand while various animations appeared on the screen. The animations were crude, such a caricature of reality that she wondered what the appeal might be; perhaps this was another one of humanity’s quirks. 

Unlike before, he was wearing proper clothing rather than pajamas. On second glance, she noticed the blue lion slippers; that was something he’d refused to give up, and Allura would never dream of asking. It was strange, how he’d so effortlessly handed over his bayard, but clung to a pair of slippers of all things. 

Allura braced herself as Lance’s button-pressing intensified. Even so, she couldn’t hold back a snicker when Lance launched into a series of expletives, a colorful mixture of English, Spanish, and Altean. Lance turned his head towards the door, brows furrowed.

“Allura?” he asked. “What’re you doing here?” 

Allura felt her cheeks heat up; she stared down at the floor and took a step away from the doorway.

“Apologies for the intrusion,” she said. She clasped her hands together. “I was just—”

“You can come in, y’know,” Lance said. 

Allura’s face felt hot all over again as she stepped inside. She cleared her throat. 

“I overheard your…shouting from the hallway,” Allura said, “so I came to investigate.” 

“Oh, sorry,” Lance said. His laughter didn’t sound entirely sincere—more…uncertain. “I just…I really get sucked into these games. I’ll try to be quieter.” 

Allura shook her head as she took another step into the dark room, letting the door close behind her. The only source of illumination remaining was the TV screen. Her vision adjusted to the darkness without much trouble. 

Scanning the room, Allura realized that Pidge had decorated her quarters more extensively than anyone else. Lance’s “beauty supplies” must have been stored in the bathroom or one of the drawers. Aside from the gaming system, which he’d presumably borrowed from Pidge again, Allura could only spot two personal touches. One was the jacket thrown across his bed. The other was the pink space caterpillar that she’d gotten him on their space mall trip—right next to his pillow. Her breath caught at the sight.    

“It doesn’t bother me,” she said, letting her hands fall to her sides. “Though I do wonder why you continue to use that word.” Lance shot her a cheeky grin. “And…” She shifted her weight, squinting at the screen in front of them. “This is for recreational purposes, correct?” Lance nodded slowly. “Yet you sound so…angry.” 

“ _Passionate_ ,” Lance corrected. “I mean, it’s definitely more fun when I _win_ , but even when I lose, it’s a nice challenge, you know?” 

“I see…” 

Allura glanced off to the side. It took all her concentration not to start fidgeting. She could have simply kept walking instead of watching Lance play his game, but here she was.  

“Say, why don’t you try it?” 

Allura snapped to attention, offering him a slow blink as his words sunk in. 

“I mean, if you’re not busy, that is,” he said quickly. There was that _uncertainty_ again.

“I’m not busy, so I suppose I might as well discover what the fuss is all about,” Allura said. 

Lance’s face lit up. He scooted over, patting his old seat. Once Allura sat down, he handed the controller to her. 

“We’ll start a new save file for you,” he said, “so you can get the full experience. I’m halfway through the story mode in my file.” Allura tilted her head. “Er, I mean—just hit the little circle button in the middle, and scroll down to the third option.” 

Allura did as she was instructed. Moments later, she was greeted with the beginning sequence. The art style was more polished than she’d seen in the fight sequences, and the music sent a rush of excitement through her. Then those strange letters showed up. Allura scowled. 

“Lance, how am I supposed t—” 

“Not to worry! I’ve read enough bedtime stories to my nieces and nephews over the years. I can just read everything to you.”

“Won’t your mouth get tired?”

Lance arched a brow at her. 

“ _Anyway_.” He cleared his throat and squared his shoulders. “ _Long, long ago, in a castle far, far away, there lived a young warrior_ …”

Once the beginning sequence ended, the screen shifted to something much less interesting. 

“Now you get to name your character,” Lance said. “This game is pretty old, so you can only be a guy, but I mean, you can do whatever you want. My nieces used to play this other game, Legend of Zelda, and they actually thought Link was a girl the whole time anyway, so.” 

“It makes no difference to me,” Allura said. “I will name this character Allura regardless.” When Lance chuckled, Allura gave him a wry smile. “Oh, come on, don’t tell me you didn’t name your character Lance.” 

“Guilty as charged.” He shrugged, gesturing for the controller. “What can I say? It’s a very heroic name.” Once Allura gave him the controller, he typed “Allura” in English and then handed it back to her. 

Allura hummed noncommittally at that, fiddling with the controller. When she tried to move her character at an angle through the joystick, she found that her character would only go in cardinal directions. 

“This game’s navigation system is so…simple.” Allura moved her character around in a square. “Is it attached to a grid?”

“Yeah. This game is like, forty years old back on Earth. Movement is way smoother in the more modern games. Especially the VR ones.”

“VR?” Allura kept her gaze on the screen as she experimented with the movement.  

“Virtual Reality. You put on a headset and then it’s like you’re _in_ the game yourself. It tracks your movements. I mean, you still can’t _feel_ anything, but you can hear and see things as if it was really happening.” 

“Oh, I see. On Altea, we mostly played those kinds of games—with full sensory support.” She paused. “Well, others mostly played VR games. I much preferred throwing the gladiator around inreality.”  

“Shocker. What level are you on again?” 

“Twenty-one, I believe?” 

“Jeez. Why does anyone ever mess with you?” He leaned sideways to bump his shoulder into hers. His smirk compelled her to reciprocate the gesture—with enough force to tip him over. The squawking noise that came out of his mouth as he fell sounded like a Ketabae. 

“Because they’re foolish,” she said through laughter, holding out a hand to pull him back up. Though he mumbled some protests, he accepted her hand with a smile. 

“Alright, _sheesh_ —now go talk to that guy over there, with the weird hat.” 

“This one?” 

“Yeah.” Lance cleared his throat dramatically. “ _Young Allura! I have been waiting for you!_ ” Allura gaped at him; his inflection and tone was _ridiculous_. Lance met her stare with a shrug. “My nieces and nephews made me do voices for all the characters. It’s not an easy habit to break.”  

“How…creative,” Allura said slowly. She waved her hand towards the screen. “Alright, carry on then.” 

“My pleasure, _princess_.” 

Hours later, Allura felt quite attached to “Allura” the character and her companions. It was so easy to get swept up in a journey that transpired as she simply sat on the floor, proper posture long forgotten. What the game lacked in complexity it compensated for in charm and sheer _fun_. The company certainly helped as well. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d yelled so much—or laughed so much. 

“Isn’t this the monster you were fighting before?” Allura asked. She recognized it from the Milkshake Incident. 

“Oh, yeah,” Lance said. “I got stuck on that one, so I’ve been doing a bunch of side quests to level up. But you…” He turned to her. There was that sincere smile, the one she found herself craving. “I know you can do it.” 

Allura held his gaze for a few seconds. Lance was usually either moving too quickly or standing in the back, so she’d never really looked at his eyes before. When he’d caught her, at the beginning of _their_ journey, she’d been too fixated on his ears to notice much else. Now, his eyes were all that she could notice. They were so _blue_. Human eyes were more simplistic than Altean’s, but there was still beauty to be found in them. 

Allura looked away from Lance, honing her gaze on the foe before her. This wasn’t the time to contemplate the hidden depths of human eyes.

Not long after, Allura was presented with a VICTORY screen, granting her an abundance of EXP and coins. She accepted this with a fist-pump and an impassioned, “ _Yes_.” 

“Wow, that’s _awesome_!” Lance said. “You did it!” He laughed, light and easy. Months ago, Allura might have searched for resentment in his voice, but at this point, she knew there was none to be found. 

It felt… _nice_ to have someone who was so happy to see her succeed. Someone who believed that she could pilot the Blue Lion and vanquish the evil pixelated dragon. 

“ _We_ did it,” she corrected. She rushed to save the game as soon as the generic victory text ended. “I couldn’t have learned the intricacies of the game without your help. Or understood any of the story.” 

“Don’t sell yourself short, Allura,” he said. “You’re really smart. You would’ve figured it all out. And I bet you would’ve come up with a better story than the one they wrote anyway.” 

“Nevertheless, I am…grateful for your support,” Allura said. “And I certainly couldn’t have provided such a wide range of voices. But—” The words felt so clumsy tumbling out of her mouth. If this was a diplomatic speech, she would’ve known exactly what to say. But this was just her and Lance. “You know, I—”

Allura turned her head as she heard footsteps from the hall. Moments later, the door slid open, bathing the room in light. Hunk’s hands rested at his hips, face set into a deep scowl. 

“Have you seriously been playing video games this whole time? Dinner’s gonna get—”Hunk’s narrow eyes went wide as he caught sight of Allura. “Oh, uh, hey Allura. What’re you…doing here?” Allura’s gaze flickered between Hunk’s face and the controller in her hands. “Right, stupid question.”

“I just beat—”  
“She just beat—”

Lance gave a high-pitched laugh as he gestured towards Allura, already looking away.  

“I beat the dragon,” Allura declared. Though she kept her focus on Hunk, she watched Lance turn off the TV and game console from her peripheral. His movements were stiff. “I apologize for keeping everyone waiting. We’ll join you all shortly.” 

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Hunk said, looking more at Lance’s back than Allura’s face. “I’ll just…let everyone know you’re coming.” He cleared his throat, loudly. “Both of you.” Hunk turned on his heel and marched off, presumably straight to the dining room. 

Allura handed the controller over to Lance, who wrapped its cord around it and set it on the console.  

“Will Pidge also be impressed by this?” she asked. “Beating the dragon, that is.” 

The tension in Lance’s shoulders dissipated as he turned to grin at her. 

“Pidge is like, the _best_ , so she’s beaten the whole game twice, and all the extra bosses,” Lance said. “But I think she’d be excited to hear you played it at all. This game…” Lance stared at the blank TV screen. “It means a lot to her, y’know?” He rose to his feet, stretching his arms over his head. From her sitting position, Allura saw a strip of skin as his shirt rode up. Hunk had mentioned that humans tended to be ticklish there; it made her wonder… 

“Uh, Earth to—Space to Allura?” Lance leaned down, waving his hand in front of her face. Allura squeaked, not unlike the way her mice did, as she stood up. 

“Let’s not keep Hunk waiting any longer,” she said quickly. 

As they walked down the hall, Allura took a deep breath. 

“Thank you for showing me this, Lance. I had a lot of fun.” 

“Oh, totally!” Lance said. “If you’re ever bored and want someone to watch you kill monsters, you know where to find me.”

“Napping on the couch?” Allura smirked. 

“Hey, sometimes I’m watching other people do stuff, so, y’know, I’m—I’m a hot commodity, actually,” Lance shot back. He gestured towards himself with a flourish. “Loverboy Lance, remember? My presence is basically a present.” 

Allura rolled her eyes. 

“I’ll try to grab you before anyone else does, then,” she said. 

“ _Especially_ before Coran does,” Lance grumbled. “Just because I’m in the pods more than anyone else doesn’t mean I have to clean them every time! Sheesh.” 

“So you want me to save you?” 

“I mean, you could put it that way.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” 

And if she couldn’t get Lance’s silly narrator voice out of her head at dinner, no one else needed to know. 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr [here](http://mustlovelance.tumblr.com)!


End file.
